The Attempt
by ithitsthefan
Summary: After an assassination on Mai, Zuko begins to grown suspicious. The gaang embarks on a new journey, with an old enemy returning, and how their love grows in time.  3 years after Sozin's comet.   Pairings: Mai/Zuko, Katara/Aang, Suki/Sokka, Toph/?
1. The intruder

Zuko turned slowly in his sleep. The heat of a fire nation summer blazed across the whole country. The heat caused much disruption amongst the nation, people retreating in their house to evade the heat from outside. But even in such a large palace the heat managed to envelop every room. He felt beads of sweat beginning to form on his forehead. He groaned in annoyance, turning over once again to shift his position in some hope of finding a cooler position. He knew that would make no difference and settled by moving further apart from a body clinging to him. Mai sighed and turned in her sleep. He closed his eyes, hoping to find himself in a dream.

Time passed, and he found himself still no closer to sleep. He listened to Mai's light, elegant breathing, and his own out of sync, harsh breathing. A sudden clicking sounded in the room, just loud enough to be heard, and Zuko's body twitched in response. His eyes flickered open slowly, and a terrible sight appeared to him. He threw himself out of bed, and sent his fist forward, aiming a stream of fire to a body perched up on a beam. The figure jumped down, and rolled to the side as Zuko sent more jets of flame in the offenders direction.

The shadowed person sprinted out the door with incredible speed. Zuko swung around to examine Mai. He gasped in shock as a white line as silver as a spider web descended directly from the ceiling to Mai's mouth. A almost metallic looking liquid trickling down the the thread.

He physically dived to the motionless woman, grabbing the thin line, and tearing it away from her parted mouth. As he felt it in his hand, a sticky liquid glued to his palm and in between his fingers. His realisation struck him like a cold bucket of water in the face.

Quickly wiping the substance on his pants, he glanced to her stationary body, and reached forwards, trying not to panic. He gripped her shoulders tightly, and shook her roughly, hoping to endeavor a single breath from her.

He froze, and felt his heart stop for a split second. He leaned his ear down to her mouth, waiting, his patience eliminated by fear. His eyes beginning to fill with unshed tears, his hand curling around her own...

A spark of happiness ignited within him as a single rasp of air emitted from her throat.

"Oh Mai.." He whispered during a long held breath, relief filled his lungs. He called the servants for assistance, and asked to send an immediate message to the Governor officials, and his advisors to schedule a meeting tomorrow.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Two days had passed since the assassination attempt, and Mai had suffered from a paining sickness, and a temperature. Not too mention the occasional hallucinations, which at times Zuko found rather funny and amusing.

He sat by her, lazily running his hand in her long ebony hair. She sighed contently, closing her eyes, and pulling up the sheets over her shoulders.

"Are you feeling okay Mai?" He asked curiously. She opened her eyes, and looked at him.

"Mm not really. Is it just me, or is it really cold in here?" She asked flatly.

A smile pursed on his lips. Without hesitation, he let out a chuckle. The expression on her face went from a quizzical one, to a confused look.

"What?" She questioned.

"It's the middle of summer, and it's basically the hottest summer the Nation's ever experienced in over a hundred years." Zuko replied happily.

He extended a hand forwards, and placed it on her forehead. It felt unbelievably hot. How could she be the slightest bit chilled?

"But is it cold in here?" She asked, making her question clear.

He shook his head.

"Unfortunately no." He replied softly. She sat up slowly, feeling dizzy.

"I'm so sick of this poisoning. When will it wear off?" She said rather dryly and her voice tinged with irritation.

"The effect should wear off soon. Just get some rest." He said, shutting the curtains, darkening the room. She sighed impatiently.

"Do you want me to call the maid for you?" He asked generously. She shook her head.

"Zuko stop worrying about me, go be Firelord, or do something. Don't you have another meeting soon?" She said monotone.

"Mai that was a close call, too close. You could've been killed." He said sternly. Her plain expression didn't falter, but he saw a hint of annoyance in her eyes.

"I don't need a lecture Zuko. I wasn't hurt, you weren't hurt. We can put those factors in perspective, and just forget the whole thing." She responded bringing her hand to her head, feeling little pin-like prickling on her forehead, a migraine beginning to grow. Without noticing, she found herself lying down once again, and Zuko placing a cold towel on her head.

"I'm just glad you're okay. I'm calling a maid, just in case." Zuko said sternly. She groaned, but didn't testify. Sometimes she found it difficult to argue with him when he was in one of those 'over-protective states'; Like right now for example.

"Whatever." She said, disapproval evident in her voice. She closed her eyes, exhausted for some reason. She felt a hand touch her cheek, and although she was somewhat annoyed at his motherly actions, she could never reject his touch. She felt a faint need for him, but ushered the thought away to the back of her mind. She was in no condition for _that_.

He kissed her softly on the lips, so airy-like. He feathered delicate kisses across her cheek, receiving a small hum from her lips. Reluctantly, he pulled away.

"I need to go, I'll be back in a few hours. The maid should be here soon." He said kissing her one las time on the lips.

"Love you Mai." He said as he left the room. Before she could reply, she found herself dozing off into a dream.


	2. An important message

hey Hey! okay so this is a story I've recently done, I should continue with my other, Ive just had this idea, and I need to put it on paper, or word, asap just beacause im pretty forgetful. rather short, if spelling errors, please ignore thanks :)

Disclaimer: Do not own Avatar The Last Airbender... *Cough*

"Hah I won again!" Aang said smugly. Katara put her hands on her hips, and frowned playfully at him.

"If I cheated using waterbending, I would've beaten you." She said defensively. katara was like that, usually stubborn, and never hurried into defeat, especially with Aang, always proving to be more dominant. She doubted that she could have beat him either way, seeing airbenders were a lot more quicker.

He grinned at her, enticing her into a challenge.

"There were no rules about airbending.." He commented. She shook her head as a cocky grin appeared on his face.

A sudden fistful of snow flew straight into his face, sending shivers down his spine.

He brushed the cold off with his gloves, and shot a glance at Katara who smiled innocently, only twenty feet away.

"What was that for?" He called.

"For being a jerk!" She answered, throwing another ball of snow. He was prepared for that and jumped to the side, the snow missing him by an inch. He smirked, grabbing a handful of snow, and throwing it at Katara. It hit her on the chest and she glared at him.

"You're dead." She said, although he could barley hear her, her lips were able to mouth it perfectly. He smiled to himself. Perfect.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

"Sokka? Sokka? Where are you?" A girl with shoulder length auburn hair called.

"Yeah Suki?" A reply came as a young man walked out of a nearby tent, holding what look to be like fur pelts.

"Hey Sokka we got a message from Zuko and Mai, an important one." Suki said extending her hand with the letter, he took it and skimmed the parchment.

"Another assassination attempt huh?" Sokka said flatly.

"Yeah just like Aang and Katara the other night, seems like a weird coincidence, don't you think?" She said. He looked at her curiously, and contemplated the recent attacks.

Aang and Katara were in the Earth Kingdom, in Ba Sing Se, and apparently an assain had tried to sneak some poisoning into their tea, until Katara had smelt the stench. Aang had been affected by the tea, but seemingly recovered in a few days.

"Yeah I guess you're right. It says we should travel to the fire nation, as soon as possible." Sokka said stroking his chin quizzically.

"Where's Aang and Katara?" Sokka asked.

Suki glanced around the deserted southern water tribe, and two sudden figures appeared walking around a nearby igloo.

"Ugh here come two high and mighty love birds." Suki said teasingly. Sokka rolled his eyes.

"Great, Jerk and my little sister. I mean why did I accept them two getting engaged?" Sokka pouted.

Suki nudged him in the gut.

"Hey you and I only just got married, and Katara accepted that, so you should just lay off their affairs." Suki said sternly.

"Oh-kay Suki, whatever makes you and Katara happy." He said knowing he couldn't win against his strong willed newly wedded wife. He smlied at her, and crept an arm around her shoulder.

Aang and Katara walked up to them, their hands curled around each others.

"Ah here they are, read this guys." Suki requested, passing them the letter from Zuko.

Katara and Aang read it, Aang's eyes widening just the slightest bit. Katara bit her lip.

"The same thing happened to us. I mean who would want Aang dead?" Katara pondered, the question reaching Sokka's ears.

"Me." Sokka said under his breath. Suki punched his in the stomach. And Katara, glared at him, he hadn't meant for her to hear that, and luckily Aang hadn't heard it.

Things hadn't change much in the gAang, well now that Sokka actually thought about it, the group had changed drastically, in their own ways, to their own extent. For one instance, Sokka and Suki had recently had their wedding, only a few days ago, and Aang had proposed to Katara about a week ago. One thing that really stumped Sokka was the fact that Aang had grown his hair back, even though he would usually complain about it. Well things like that had changed most of the members, Zuko and Mai engaged, and Toph, well she hadn't changed at all. If anything, she had only grown to be at least 5"6, which meant she was nower the shortest in the group. And well one more huge drastic change was the fact that Aang shot up when he hit fifteen, and well, he was basically the tallest of the group now. Now at sixteen, he had finally matured, well actually not really.

"Well I think we should definitely go. We should go pack and leave as soon as we can." Katara said, tugging Aang's hand gently pulling him away to their tent.

"Sokka I don't wan to offend your culture, but, I really am missing solid ground. And not too mention some heat." Suki admitted, partially just to annoy him.

He laughed, "me too. Actually the fire nation usually is warm during this time of year." Sokka replied. She sighed and stretched her arms around his neck tenderly kissing him on the lips.


End file.
